7.0 Overview To sustain the high quality of research expected from this Partnership, strict planning and evaluation processes have been implemented to monitor collaboration building, as well as all projects, programs and cores against both the Partnership's mission, goals and objectives, and the mission/goals and objectives of the U54 mechanism itself. It is our intent to utilize Partnership funding for projects and programs to nurture their development, but not to provide long-term support. As a part of building and sustaining excellence, all projects and programs undergo a strenuous review by our internal and external committees (Table 36) and are expected to (and must develop a plan to) apply for external funding from the NIH or an equivalent agency. These planning and evaluation processes are also instrumental in accurately assessing the Partnership's effectiveness towards achieving its immediate (1-3 years) and intermediate (4-5 years) goals (See Section 1.5) of establishing a sustainable research infrastructure (e.g., key personnel recruitment, clinical accrual cores, tissue cores, assigned building space, and further defining programmatic approaches toward the development of the roadmap to obtain cancer center designation) at the UPRCCC. Not to mention, strategically, a strong planning and evaluation process is needed to aid the Partnership in achieving its long-term goal (post-U54 funding) of regaining NCI-designation for the UPRCCC. Although regaining NCI-designation is not a direct goal within the scope of the U54 mechanism, as Pis, we believe that it is imperative for us to not just think in terms of U54 specifics, but to pursue goals beyond the U54. For us, regaining NCI-designation is a positive step towards building a stronger national cancer program aimed at understanding the reasons behind cancer health disparities and their impact on the populations we serve.